Hybrid Schedules are Here to Stay

Can you believe it? It’s been two years of working remotely, but some folks are getting tired of their home offices and want to get back to campus. However, not every campus is back to pre-pandemic workplace traffic.

I imagine that on your campus, faculty and staff were working remotely out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic while pre-pandemic working from home was done on an ad hoc basis. Now, it appears that remote work has become a permanent part of work schedule options. Essentially, hybrid work schedules are arrangements where folks work a combination of work from home some days and other days are on campus.

If your campus chooses the hybrid model, it should be done with intention that takes into consideration that the arrangements need to be monitored and adjusted as the work evolves and folks’ personal needs change. The traditional campus work life won’t and shouldn’t go away. Simply, the hybrid schedules supplement it.

What’s amazing about this hybrid workforce model is that it challenges our assumptions about our campus spaces and what collaboration looks and feels like. We’ve all gained virtual work skills during the pandemic even if we have never worked remotely before. We’ve relied heavily on our WiFi and our IT colleagues. So, it is critical that your IT function be included in the strategizing as various tools are needed for calendaring, chatting, e-signing, managing projects, payroll access, and document sharing. Ha! And, we’ve all come to love videoconferencing in the form of Zoom or something like it. 

As a human resources professional, my observation is that folks often underestimate how much of their work is virtual, even when they are on campus. In many cases, we conduct much of our business through email exchanges with folks we may rarely have face-to-face meetings or connections. In my view, it is critical that social and interpersonal skills are components of any workplace strategy and culture. Clearly, the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the way we work and to adapt necessary changes are needed to strengthen our campus work cultures. For obvious reasons, your campus will need to think through role-specific criteria for hybrid work schedules, but arrangements will also be driven by the employee’s personal circumstances. Supervisors of teams with full or hybrid schedules should seek out support from HR. Employee engagement and connection is important for collegial, high performing team collaborations. HR can assist with crafting activities, training, and other interventions to create inclusive experiences for all employees. Whether folks have chosen to be on campus or not, we must recognize that all of our constituencies are looking for assistance to maintain a healthy work and family life.

The COVID-19 Mandate Question

To be, or not to be, that is the question.” Sorry for the Shakespeare reference, but Hamlet’s soliloquy has application to every campus this year: Should campuses mandate COVID vaccinations for students? For faculty and staff (employees)?

As this debate wages on, I’ve begun daydreaming in my endless Zoom meetings and webinars. I’m having flashbacks of my college literature lectures on how Shakespeare creates a balance with the first six words that Hamlet utters. As Hamlet ponders life and death, he asks which of the two alternatives is nobler, whether to suffer the cruelties of fate silently or to put up a fight against the misfortunes of life that afflict one. This soliloquy’s dramatic purpose is to explain Hamlet’s procrastination in carrying out his purpose, and the mental torture and anguish Hamlet feels if he does not.

As we grapple with the COVID-19 vaccination question, ought we remain steadfastly committed to our purpose to keep our campuses safe? Should we mandate the COVID vaccines as a means to assure our communities? If we don’t, what will happen? Of what great consequence?

The question to mandate the vaccine dominates college plans to shift back from remote to in-person instruction and from remote working to hybrid or fully on campus. Some colleges have held vaccination clinics to get students and employees immunized before they leave for the summer. Many colleges now see that the only way to return to normal and get back to campus is through a required vaccination program as the answer. The goal is to help build confidence that students, faculty and staff will be safe on campus.

I am not a lawyer, and I am not making a legal argument. But we do look to federal, state, and local authorities and the law--Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC)--for guidance to inform our decision-making.

First, protecting the privacy rights of our students and employees is of the utmost importance. We treat COVID-19 testing, temperature screening results, reports of symptoms, contact tracing, vaccination, or declinations as confidential medical records stored separately under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

But what happens to the prescreening for COVID-19 when the benefits diminish as rates of vaccination increase? Our campus policies need to be consistent and communicated clearly. Some states mandate temperature screening before work shifts, while the CDC recommends the continued utilization of prescreening.

With OSHA in mind, we have a duty to keep our communities free of recognized hazards, and we can consider the COVID-19 virus a danger or a risk to our communities. In so doing, if we adopt a policy that mandates all students and employees must receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the policy must have express medical and religious exemptions. The medical exemption stems from the ADA, which prohibits discrimination against individual medical conditions and requires us to provide individuals with health conditions a “reasonable accommodation.” The religious exemption is protected by The Civil Rights Act of 1964. If you choose to mandate vaccines as a condition of employment, adverse reactions are OSHA recordable events.

Other questions to work out if you decide to mandate. Is there a blanket policy that all employees need to work regardless of vaccination status? Is letting the employee work from home a “reasonable accommodation”? What accommodations will you allow for students? If students don’t comply, are they barred from residence, classes, or entirely from campus? Will you provide paid time off for employees to receive and recover from the vaccine?

One last Hamlet reference. Whatever you decide to do, there will be “slings and arrows” of those who believe mandating the vaccine is an assault on their liberties and others who will think you haven’t done enough to keep them safe if you don’t.

Please keep a watchful eye on the Chronicle’s “List of Colleges That Will Require Students or Employee to Be Vaccinated Against COVID-19.” Often our best lessons are those we learn from our sister institutions.

I wish you well as you grapple with these questions on your campus, and I am confident you will find the best solution to keep your community safe. Be well.

Considerations for remote and flexible work policies

Many organizations are pivoting to an online or hybrid work environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To adapt, some organizations are developing policies on remote work and flexible schedules.

When developing policies related to remote work, consider impacts on:

• Access to vaccine for those unable to work remotely
• Accessibility of faculty and staff to students
• Connectivity and IT support
• Employee wellness and staying emotionally connected virtually
• Equipment purchasing and lending for remote work
• Equity of individuals allowed to work remotely (front desk staff, senior leadership, etc.)
• Facility and space usage and planning
• Information and records security and privacy
• Performance, conduct and time management
• Workers compensation coverage
• Working out-of-state or out-of-country (tax implications and privacy laws)

Resources

The following articles, while not specifically about higher education, provide useful policy guidelines for our organizations:

• https://www.fedscoop.com/agency-leaders-anticipate-post-pandemic-hybrid-work-environment/
• https://www.density.io/blog/returning-to-workplace-after-covid-19

For Future Thought

• How has your organization responded to the need for policies on remote work and flexible schedules?
• What should other organizations consider when developing remote work policies and procedures?
• How has your experience been working remotely or on-campus during the pandemic?

Articles on topics that may affect your organization’s policies

As we continue the fall semester, the Blog Committee would like to share some of the articles we’ve been reading that relate to policy administration in higher education.

• Class Notes: The gender poverty gap, COVID-19’s impact on college students, and more
  By Ember Smith and Richard V. Reeves, The Brookings Institution, Sept. 9, 2020
• A Perception Problem About Free Speech
  By Greta Anderson, Inside Higher Ed, Sept. 29, 2020
• University of California must stop all use of SAT and ACT in admissions, judge orders
  By Michael Burke, Ed Source, Sept. 1, 2020
• Accommodations in the Time of COVID
  By Nancy Gunzenhauser Popper, Talent Management and HR, Aug. 31, 2020
• UW System: Registration is now open for national public summit on preventing sexual harassment in higher education
  WisBusiness.com, Sept. 29, 2020
• 4 COVID-era Cybersecurity Threats CISOs are Confronting
  By Matt Zalaznick, University Business, Aug. 20, 2020
• California Bill Likely Conflicts with New Title IX Regulation
  By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Education Dive, Aug. 28, 2020

How COVID-19 complicated a college merger

Institutional change is hard and a gradual process is best accomplished through a series of baby steps taken over months or years to bring it to fruition. That said, Rowan College of South Jersey (RCSJ) has undergone extreme change on a short timeline, which defies my above logic but perhaps speaks to institutional resiliency.

RCSJ was established as a new institution with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s (MSCHE) approval on July 1, 2019. The merger joined two community colleges from two counties into one, with the caveat MSCHE would be back in approximately six months to assess if headway was being made based on the original substantive change request information. A few of areas the MSCHE team would review when they returned to campus were policy development progress, institutional effectiveness, and strategic planning development. All of these areas fall within the President’s Office under the Institutional Policy umbrella.

The Institutional Policy Office in the interim has made progress in these three areas. Policies were systematically reviewed with stakeholder meetings held on both campuses, the practice of electronic review and tracking of revisions continued, and the policy library was maintained. Work has begun and continues on aligning the two campuses’ institutional effectiveness practices. And finally, a timeline and strategy to implement a three-year strategic plan process was developed in October 2019, the initial kick-off took place in November 2019, which started a cascade of in-person meetings over the next several months, with the final product ready to present to the RCSJ Board of Trustees pinned down to June or July 2020.

Seven months into the merger, MSCHE did return for a review site visit on March 10, 2020. While preparations for this visit were underway, the day prior to MSCHE’s arrival, the State of New Jersey’s Governor issued both a Public Health Emergency and a State of Emergency Executive Order due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This was followed by another Executive Order on March 16, suspending all face-to-face instruction effective March 18. The following week the college was closed for spring break. This break was when faculty and staff shifted a two-campus commuter college, accustomed to in-person delivery, to an entirely online delivery more than mid-way through the college’s spring semester and strategized how to effectively and immediately communicate this abrupt change to the student body. No small feat, as others I am certain can attest.

New Jersey, with its close proximation to New York City, was significantly impacted by the pandemic, exerting huge financial implications for businesses, schools, and residents. Subsequently, the governor on March 21 issued Executive Order 107 directing all New Jersey residents to stay at home until further notice. At the time of this writing, the State of New Jersey is re-opening in phases; I and my colleagues remain working from home as higher education has not been released to return to work. All summer session classes and student support services will continue to be provided online --- not ideal, but doable.

From a policy stand point, all policy work was already done electronically, so no problem there. What has been unfortunate is the abrupt move from face-to-face meetings with policy owners to a web-based format with frustratingly poor connectivity at times, particularly when our two campuses are in the midst of building rapport and a collaborative foundation. In addition, due to the pandemic, the alignment of institutional effectiveness is now on hold until we can return to campus, and the last two in-person dinner meetings to review the strategic plan’s finalized goals and objectives with the internal and external constituent groups were forced by necessity to an online format. The strategic plan final draft is complete and ready for presentation at our virtual board meeting in July.

We live in a new era of complexities that will certainly define a new normal and change our practices socially, personally, and professionally. We are in the center of a perfect storm with a trifecta of pressures converging:  the rising anxiety and stress due to escalating coronavirus deaths, massive unemployment generating financial insecurity, and the disturbing recent events calling forth understandable nation-wide civil unrest. These are difficult times and as educators we face many daunting challenges, but we are also positioned to make things better by showing understanding and respect for all.

To end on a positive note, out of darkness comes a sliver of light. Remember the strategic plan I mentioned was about to be published? This document will now have a companion piece that will be a strategic diversity, equity, and inclusion action plan and will serve as its foundation. It may even preface the overarching strategic plan with a “holding a space” notation within for a future insertion. That is what I would call “belt and suspenders”! The design has and will now become the talk of many of our future virtual meetings. And let’s not forget policy work that is tethered tightly to the strategic plan. Our important work goes on. The storm will clear.

A better way is on its way.

Stay well --- stay healthy.